The Keys to Kindle Picture Book Success - Day 1 of 4


Welcome!

 

Here’s Laura to get you started on your exciting journey….

 

 

 

 

Enter your comments or questions below. And be sure to check your email tomorrow for the link to the next video!
 

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    Rebecca Snyder
    Rebecca Snyder
    9 years ago

    Laura,

    I am excited about publishing my picture book…hope the illustration costs are a doable for me.

    Becky

    Patricia
    Patricia
    9 years ago
    Reply to  Rebecca Snyder

    Brain stirring, gray matter shaking information. Thanks

    Andreea
    9 years ago
    Reply to  Rebecca Snyder

    Hi everyone, just wanted to let those interested in getting some amazing illustrations done for your picture books that I am a freelance illustrator ready to work with you at a reasonable price.

    Good luck with your stories and I hope to hear from you soon.

    Have a sunny day.
    Andreea

    Andreea_dp@hotmail.com

    Mary
    Mary
    9 years ago
    Reply to  Rebecca Snyder

    Great to find Laura commenting on something I really want to do! Must I wait until tomorrow to continue?
    Thanks!

    Monica Kelley
    9 years ago
    Reply to  Rebecca Snyder

    This is where I get a little confused. To really get the gist of a book, you would have to purchase it from Amazon to read it, right? I mean, just sifting through the lists and looking at the covers isn’t going to tell me how the subject was written about. That doesn’t really tell me anything about the book. So, do I have to purchase a bunch of Amazon picture e-books to help me with my idea?

    Nancy
    Nancy
    8 years ago
    Reply to  Jon Bard

    I love the new Kindle Children’s Publishing software. I understand Amazon is going to be adding exciting updates to it to make it more interactive.
    Great video. Thanks for sharing it.
    To those that wanted to look at a completed e-book you can join a facebook group that posts free kindle books to review. There are usually some children’s books among them.

    kim
    kim
    9 years ago
    Reply to  Rebecca Snyder

    I a a writer and have been pondering about ebooks but a bit afraid. Thanks for the videos I look forward to watching them and learning more. Who knows my next book my be an ebook.

    Carla
    Carla
    9 years ago
    Reply to  Rebecca Snyder

    Enjoyed the video but I still don’t see how I can be successful as a picture book author.

    Maeann Jasa
    Maeann Jasa
    9 years ago
    Reply to  Rebecca Snyder

    Thank you!!!!! You make it doable!

    Donna
    Donna
    9 years ago
    Reply to  Rebecca Snyder

    Thank u Laura for this information. I live in the UK and are really excited about writing my first children’s picture book. I’m a bit nervous about self publishing, heard lots of negative stories. Would it be a problem working with me because I do not live in the USA?

    Laura Backes
    Admin
    9 years ago
    Reply to  Donna

    Since most work is done online these days, where you live shouldn’t matter. Even if you hire an illustrator who lives in the US, you’ll be receiving sketches and finished art via email or Dropbox.

    Joy Skea
    Joy Skea
    8 years ago
    Reply to  Rebecca Snyder

    Love the video! very informative. Can I not get this as a pdf file or movie that I can save to my computer to listen to often?

    sarah Wood
    sarah Wood
    8 years ago
    Reply to  Rebecca Snyder

    Excited about the possibilities.. picture books with animated gifs could be in the works for a Kindle offering. I have an illustrator and look forward to beginning the process!

    lorie
    8 years ago
    Reply to  Rebecca Snyder

    Love the great ideas and tools to help with researching what is out there, so that I can be sure to create something completely different. excited to get started… thanks

    Andrea
    8 years ago
    Reply to  Rebecca Snyder

    Hi Rebecca,
    I’m an illustrator and I might be able to help you. You can contact me thru my website http://www.andreacomenta.com

    Tracy Campbell
    9 years ago

    Hi Laura,

    Thank you for explaining and showing one how to search in Amazon to see which books are popular. This was very helpful.

    Tracy

    Katherine
    9 years ago

    This is a nice video, but it didn’t teach or show me anything I didn’t already know!

    Its very basic!

    Denice Lewis
    9 years ago

    Thank you Laura!

    I’ve been writing over forty years. I have self-published four ebooks in the last few years, but my picture book manuscripts are in a file. Marketing has been my downfall, but I realize that I can no longer avoid the situation. I am excited to be able to take advantage of the great change in the market so that my stories can see the light of day once I research the market. Your free advice is so welcome. Thank you again. I can see my dreams finally coming true.

    Cathy Graham
    9 years ago

    Loved the video, Laura. I must admit I signed up for your Kindle Book Creator course a few months back and still haven’t completed it. Probably fear and procrastination mostly. I must get back to it and finish.

    Love the idea of looking through at the different topics on Amazon already for ideas on how to make ours different.

    Your enthusiasm and energy makes it seem so possible. Thanks for the inspiration!

    Fay Ulanoff
    9 years ago

    Well done- Since I’m not an illustrator and have penned many children’s manuscripts, I’m looking forward to some guidance in that direction.

    Nita Couch
    Nita Couch
    9 years ago
    Reply to  Fay Ulanoff

    I want to introduce myself as an illustrator/author of ten ebooks I have written and illustrated as Kindle eBooks. Most of my books are offered free of charge for those who may be looking for an illustrator. All you need to do is send me an email to let me know what ebook you would like to examine and I will set it up. My email address is: nitacouch@gmail.com.

    Kathleen Korbel
    Kathleen Korbel
    9 years ago

    So far so good, as I can handle this!

    Kris
    Kris
    9 years ago

    Thanks Laura for sharing this valuable course so we can better understand publishing via Kindle’s e picture books! I appreciate how you’re helping authors navigate these quickly changing, as well as advantageous times. I have a question. Would easy readers, around 10K words, also work in this format? Or does the story need to be shorter and more illustration-centric? You mentioned some easy readers in today’s video, so I was curious if Kindle’s picture book software allows also for more text and less illustrations too?

    Laura Backes
    Admin
    9 years ago
    Reply to  Kris

    Hi Kris:

    Yes, the KDP Kids’ Book Creator software would be great for easy readers as well. The test pop-up feature makes the words easy to see on the screen. You can use a two-page format in landscape mode and have the text on one page, and an illustration on the facing page, allowing you to put more text on the screen. Many print easy readers are formatted this way. The only time-consuming part of a 10K story would be placing the text down page by page (which would allow you to use the pop-up feature), or adding pop-ups over existing text if you import the whole book as a pdf. But it’s doable.

    Amanda Kirkham
    Amanda Kirkham
    9 years ago

    Thanks Laura! Your video is helping me to change my perception of self-published writers. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter if you’re published traditionally or not. A good book will sell regardless. I look forward to the next video. Thanks again for doing this.

    Verlie
    Verlie
    9 years ago

    This is great! Very much fun and exciting to think about. I’d love it you’d put a little printable synopsis of this talk for us visual learners. The audio/verbal is great, but having the high points on paper would be so very helpful.

    Glynis
    9 years ago

    Okay. I am pumped. I have just released a [print] picture book and was wondering about getting it on Amazon as a Kindle book. The timing for this is perfect! Thank you. And, Laura, you are a wonderful speaker and teacher. All I want to do now is to hurry up and get to the next video. This was a very helpful foundation for this series. Can’t wait! Will one of the sessions be an actual how-to do it? Thanks!

    Cecilia
    Cecilia
    9 years ago

    I paid a fortune for a course which you just summed up in 13 minutes for free, and did an excellent of of it too. Thanks

    Hanah Miller
    Hanah Miller
    9 years ago

    This is so helpful and it so nice of you to do this. Thank you so much.

    Beth Jones
    9 years ago

    Hi Laura, this was very encouraging. I am a speaker and a non-fiction writer (for primarily women speakers, writers, authors, coaches). My husband Ray and our 3 daughters have tried to encourage me to write a fiction book, for adults and for children. I’ve thought many times about writing a children’s picture book, but I can’t draw (illustrate) and haven’t written fiction before. I’m looking forward to your next video to learn more about this. I agree this is a great opportunity – sounds exciting!

    Janet Athavichitchanyaraks
    Janet Athavichitchanyaraks
    9 years ago

    I have the mastery course. I have my story, and I am chugging away at my illustrations.
    Thank you for your updates, instruction, and encouragement.

    Katherine
    9 years ago

    Love this video!

    Very informative!

    Thank You

    Linda
    Linda
    9 years ago

    I have taken notes and am excited to do the research as you have recommended. I have 8 books in draft form and had put them all on hold the past 3 years while I was a 40-60 hour a week full-time volunteer President of an NGO children’s library. It’s now time for me to get back to my writing and find the magic illustrator for my books. Thank you for already inspiring me to do these as Picture EBooks. I look forward to your next video.

    Cheers and…Thank You!

    Grace H.
    Grace H.
    9 years ago

    Thank you so much for your video. It’s great to know where to begin.

    Jen
    Jen
    9 years ago

    I have several books in the works, but have never published. You are correct. I have no idea where to start, and it’s very frightening! Although I have written a few things, I am clueless as to how they would be categorized (picture book or early reader, for example) or even what ages would be the target group.
    Thank you so much for this taste into the self publishing world. I found it simple to follow, and full of good content. I guess I’d better run over to Amazon now, and see where my ideas fit in!

    Amy L.
    Amy L.
    9 years ago

    I very much enjoyed this video. You shared some great tips and insights, especially about using Amazon as a research and marketing tool. I have my content — in fact, it was written by my late mom, a teacher and gifted poet. But I have to collect and organize what I must curate as the best of her work, edit it and illustrate it. This will be my tribute to her — and the fulfillment of her dream to create a book that both educates and entertains children. I look forward to your next videos. Thank you.

    Carol
    9 years ago

    Laura,
    Thanks so much. I enjoyed this and look forward to the next session.
    P.S. I really like your delivery. Very easy to watch and follow along.

    Christine Hile
    Christine Hile
    9 years ago

    I read all the comments from others and wish I could view the video. My dialup internet too slow for that. As one person commented, it would be great if you could do a print synopsis of the main points. I’m a visual learner also. Your presentation sounds great. Thank you so much.

    Lauri Fortino
    9 years ago

    Thanks, Laura! This is all very exciting and I am eager to learn more, especially about marketing!

    Melinda
    Melinda
    9 years ago

    Hi Laura

    Looking forward to watching this tomorrow, when my other half isn’t sitting next to me with the TV on! Good timing, as I’m just formatting my first “proper” picture book for Kindle and CreateSpace.

    From people’s comments, I’m assuming this first episode is about using Kindle Kids’ Book Creator software. Am I the only person who has real reservations about this software? I produced an illustrated Early Chapter book with it for Christmas, so can confirm that you can use it with lots of text per page, and that the pages look good.

    What the drawbacks are, however, are:
    1. AMAZON currently offer no “look inside” features for this format. (Though your print version one kicks in for both formats after about 3 weeks.)
    2. You can’t add internal links to your other books.
    3. The software still has glitches, and preview issues.
    4. The eBooks produced can’t be read on older Kindles. (I received a one star review from a customer for my Christmas book, simply complaining that they couldn’t download the book. AMAZON seem to refuse to remove such reviews, which has further put me off using the software.)
    5. Opting for good resolution for HD screens results in big files, which AMAZON force a minimum pricing structure on. (Not helpful to new, Indie authors.)

    All in all, I’ve decided to format my new picture book with the old .mobi format instead. Tricky and annoying to format, and not brilliant on resolution, but I’ll be able to keep it below 3MB, and price it at $0.99. (I experimented with an old perma free recently with KKBC, and did manage to get to just below 3MB by dropping JPEG resolution, and keeping the page count down. All experiments I done so far converting pdfs seemed to result in much bigger filesizes of far greater than 10MB, which require a $2.99 minimum eBook price).

    So, I look forward to your perspective on Kindle picture books, and hope to pick up a few tips, but I’m not yet ready to dive down the KKBC route again. If AMAZON, like Apple, didn’t charge download fees, and force minimum pricing, and if they introduced “look inside” for the eBook version, then I’d be a whole lot keener.

    Yolanda Velasco
    Yolanda Velasco
    9 years ago
    Reply to  Melinda

    Thank you Melinda for your clarifying words! : )

    Carolyn Carmody
    9 years ago

    Hi Laura,

    This video was great! Looking forward to seeing the others.

    Shirley Manis
    9 years ago

    Hi Laura,

    You were a tremendous help with my self-published print book. I am anxious to begin this new direction under your expert guidance. (Jon’s an excellent sidekick, too!) I can’t stress enough the value being offered here.

    I’m listening!
    ***Shirley

    Patti Meyers
    Patti Meyers
    9 years ago

    Very interesting tho I knew most of what Laura was saying. I can see I should be buying a kindle, tho.

    Looking forward to the next video!

    Linda
    Linda
    9 years ago

    I love this idea of free video lessons on topics as part of the membership. Keep it up Laura and Jon

    wittY
    wittY
    9 years ago

    Laura… many thanks… there were interesting tips…

    Beth
    Beth
    9 years ago

    Laura, thanks for your time and information. I appreciated learning how to navigate Amazon for our book ideas. Looking forward to the next video.

    Margaret
    Margaret
    9 years ago

    Thanks, Laura. I liked this first video and look forward to the remaining ones. I like learning things over a period of time so that I don’t feel overwhelmed with too much information all at once. This was just the right amount of information that was presented clearly so that I absorbed it in one sitting and have no need to repeat it. Nice job! Thanks so much for your clear guidance!

    Marvene Spencer
    Marvene Spencer
    9 years ago

    Hi Laura,

    I extremely love how you’re breaking this down for a step by step learner as myself.
    Now my research, based on your instructions is manageable in time for your next video, which I’m looking forward to.
    Easy is becoming so realistic. Thanks for simplifying the process.

    Marvene

    sandi
    sandi
    9 years ago

    I’ve reworked some folk stories to look at kids social problems. Could you see this as being worth publishing? Thanks.

    Rose
    Rose
    9 years ago

    Thanks so much for the information. Can’t wait to get the next video on illustration and marketing.

    Ognjen
    9 years ago

    I liked very much: “Committed to create a great book!”
    looking forward for next video

    Donna Mann
    9 years ago

    Looking forward to the next video. You make it sound like it can happen.

    Jennifer
    Jennifer
    9 years ago

    Thank you!!! I am soaking up information so that I can be the best I can be. Thank you for the videos!!!! 🙂

    Wayne Cash
    9 years ago

    Hey Laura! This is a great video! You really gave some powerful tips about self-publishing. It can be intimidating to jump out there, but you have demystified the process. I can’t wait to see the rest of your videos! Thanks for sharing!

    Sokat
    9 years ago

    I think that is an infomative video, it will help my work. Thanks Laura! 🙂

    Jackie
    9 years ago

    Very informative. I want to learn more. I am so excited! Thanks for sharing.

    Jackie
    9 years ago

    Thanks for sharing. Very informative. I can’t wait!

    Jackie
    9 years ago

    Thanks for sharing. Very informative.

    Jackie
    9 years ago

    Thanks.

    Dorothy
    Dorothy
    9 years ago

    Laura and Jon, thank you for all your good advice and especially for this freebie on kid’s ebooks.

    Jarm
    9 years ago

    Thanks, Laura! You’ve convinced me to check it out. I was against self-publishing, but your reasons intrigued me. Looking forward to the next one. . .

    Leena
    Leena
    9 years ago

    Thank you does not do justice to your ability to simplify the elephant in my mind.

    I have a couple of books ready to go. One is in Indie print, but my e-book fear of not doing it right has kept me frozen.
    I have enrolled in hopeful attempts, but they didn’t do it for me. If anyone can, I do believe it will be you.
    Most of all, thank you for not digitally shouting at me. It lets me listen attentively.
    Leena

    Carol Green
    Carol Green
    9 years ago

    I love your energy and your delivery. I hear you. My poor baby wannabe books. They’re ready to be born. Thanks for this. Looking forward to more. I may have already bought the course. Gotta check back and see what’s lurking in my email archives.

    Patricia
    Patricia
    9 years ago

    I don’t. Have a website. I have been writing stories all my life. I have entered many contests and won FIRST PRIZES many times. I always wanted to publish some of the best ones, but I always figured I couldn’t afford to have one published. I saw your children’s kindle writing opportunity and thought I would like to give it a try! So, I will experiment with trying it in the near future, and see if I will be able to follow it.

    Thanks for your assistance and guidance though the maze.

    Peggy Wilmeth Carr
    Peggy Wilmeth Carr
    9 years ago

    My website is still under construction, but coming soon, thanks to my sweet, talented, daughter.

    Thank you for demonstrating a genuinely professional-looking video! The best part is the encouragement to create with quality, but I most need the encouragement to get some e-books out there, to help fund the print books. I’ve done some light “market research,” asking librarians what they need, but I hadn’t studied monetary demand online, yet.

    Zyangquelyn Witherspoon
    Zyangquelyn Witherspoon
    9 years ago

    Thanks Laura. I learned a lot about using Amazon as a research resource during this session. I’m interested in creating interactive books and I’d like to learn as much as I can about automating my books. Can’t wait until the next session. Thanks again.

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